MOVIE REVIEW: 'Churchill' paints a human portrait of the British leader

Friday

Jun 2, 2017 at 6:30 AM

Brian Cox, in a full-throttle performance, creates a Winston Churchill we've rarely seen – a man so devoted to the responsibilities placed upon him by the adoring British citizenry that he's reluctant to pull the trigger on an operation that could cost tens of thousands of Allied lives, better known as D-Day.

By Al Alexander/For The Patriot Ledger

Boy, could we use Winston Churchill right about now. In this age of crotch-grabbing diplomacy, you can’t help but long for another chubby, bald-headed Englishman to descend from the heavens – like some Marvel superhero – to save us all. That’s the feeling that pulsates in the unfolding of “Churchill,” director Jonathan Teplitzky’s stiff-upper-lip recounting of the primo prime minister’s “trials and tribulations” during the four days leading up to the game-changing Operation Overlord. Or, as it’s better known in these parts: D-Day.

Historians will surely quibble – in fact, they already are – over a script by Alex von Tunzelmann that casts Churchill as a flawed, doubt-filled man; not the irreproachable icon we’ve come to expect. But the portrait she paints – whether true or not – is so deeply human, you can’t deny she has a measure of the diplomat a 2002 BBC poll determined to be the “greatest Briton of all time,” besting Princess Diana and William Shakespeare, the man from whom Churchill found much of his inspiration. Tunzelmann even works in (awkwardly) a Bard-like soliloquy in which the PM prays vociferously to God for a weather delay that would postpone the June 6 invasion.

Ay, there’s the rub. Contrary to most Churchill scholars, it’s Tunzelmann’s contention that the British Bulldog got cold feet when the time came to unleash a furious attempt to forge a beachhead in Normandy. The reason? His guilt over the massive loss of life resulting from his push for a similar invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey in 1915, a military disaster that still haunts him nearly 30 years later. Brian Cox, in a full-throttle performance, creates a Churchill we’ve rarely seen – a man so devoted to the responsibilities placed upon him by the adoring British citizenry that he’s reluctant to pull the trigger on an operation that could cost tens of thousands of Allied lives.

Although the opportunity exists, Cox avoids the scenery chewing that tempts so many Churchill portrayers. Never has the PM been more like the common man, consumed by the gravity of the task he’s been entrusted. Yet, Cox is just as convincing in the fearlessness Churchill unleashes in repeatedly butting heads with John Slattery’s Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme commander who thinks of the PM as a naysaying pest. Lucky for Ike, he and his British counterpart, Field Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery (Julian Wadham), have the final call, and – weather permitting – the assault will go on, whether the PM gets onboard or not. And that’s a problem; at least for the movie. If Churchill has no real say, why are we spending so much time watching him deal with his fears and doubts? That’s a question the film never fully answers. But it does provide plenty of room for Cox to stretch out in giving us a renowned world leader at war with his weaknesses, be it a fragile mental state, an over dependence on scotch or the enormous weight the world has placed on his slumping shoulders. His savior here – and in real life – is his darling Clementine (Miranda Richardson), a woman who is not just his wife, but his chief adviser and confident. It’s a role Richardson fills admirably with wisdom and strength, fully embracing Clementine’s knack for speaking truth to power.

We’re all familiar with the Churchills’ rank among the 20th century’s most admired couples, but that doesn’t interest the filmmakers as much as their polite – refreshingly direct – rows over how best they can facilitate the destruction of the greatest evil the world has known. It was a time that tried their souls; and for us, it’s the most fascinating aspect of a film that thrives on their fiery encounters. Less interesting are Cox’s handful of scenes opposite Slattery, glaringly miscast as Ike. In Slattery’s hands, the general projects less like a war hero and future president than a know-it-all whippersnapper disrespecting his elder.

At least he fares better than James Purefoy as King George VI, aka Bertie, the stuttering monarch who originally sides with Churchill, even going so far as to agree to joining Winston aboard a ship on the frontlines of the invasion. Safe to say, Purefoy is no Colin Firth. And what would this Masterpiece Theater-lite production be without a manic pixie dream girl in the form of Churchill’s adorably flustered secretary, Helen, played with full-speed-ahead devotion by the scene-stealing Ella Purnell? She’s here, no doubt, to pull in the millennial crowd, some of whom probably confuse Churchill for Hitchcock.

Be patient young’uns; you’ll get the complete opposite of “Churchill” later this summer via Christopher Nolan. His “Dunkirk” is filled with hunky young movie stars playing Allied troops beating a retreat just north of Normandy, as the Nazi forces drive the Brits back to England, where it would take four long years to regroup before exacting the ultimate revenge. Too bad “Churchill” isn’t better. They might have made a terrific double feature. But whereas “Churchill” comes up short narratively, it conquers your cynicism toward politics per usual. Morally weak or not, Winston Churchill is a man whose ilk we can only pray we’ll see again. CHURCHILL (PG for thematic elements, brief war images, historical smoking throughout, and some language.) Cast includes Brian Cox, Miranda Richardson, John Slattery, Ella Purnell, James Purefoy and Julian Wadham. Grade: B-